Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, 7 January 2009

Note: A version of this article first appeared on the Electronic Intifada as "BBC: Eyeless in Gaza". It has since been updated.

On February 29 last year the BBC's website reported deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatening a 'holocaust' on Gaza. Headlined "Israel warns of Gaza 'holocaust'", the story would undergo nine revisions in the next twelve hours. Before the day was over, the headline would read "Gaza militants 'risking disaster'". (The story has since been revised again with an exculpatory note added soft-pedalling Vilnai's comments). An Israeli threatening 'holocaust' may be unpalatable to those who routinely invoke its spectre to deflect criticism from the Jewish state's criminal behaviour. With the 'holocaust' reference redacted, the new headline shifted culpability neatly into the hands of 'Gaza militants' instead.

One could argue that the BBC's radical alteration of the story reflects its susceptibility to the kind of inordinate pressure for which the Israel Lobby's well-oiled flak machine is notorious. But, as I will show in subsequent examples, this story is exceptional only insofar as it reported accurately in the first place something that could bear negatively on Israel's image. The norm is reflexive self-censorship.

To establish evidence of the BBC's journalistic malpractice one often has to do no more than pick a random sample of news related to the Israel-Palestine conflict currently on its website. In a time of conflict BBC's coverage invariably tends to the Israeli perspective, and nowhere is this reflected more than in the semantics and framing of its reportage. More so than the quantitative bias – which was meticulously established by the Glasgow University Media Group in their study Bad News from Israel – it is the qualitative tilt that obscures the reality of the situation. This is often achieved by engendering a false parity by stretching the notion of journalistic balance to encompass power, culpability and legitimacy as well. The present conflict is no exception.

5 January 2009

All lobbying activity in the UK should be registered and monitored. This is the key recommendation of an 18 month investigation into lobbying by an influential committee of MPs.

The report published today (05 January 2009) by the Public Administration Select Committee concludes that reform of lobbying is necessary. Key to this, it says, is greater transparency. “There is a public interest in knowing who is lobbying whom about what,” says Committee Chair Dr Tony Wright. Do nothing, the report warns, and public mistrust of Government will increase, fueled by the perception that Government listens to - and is influenced by - favoured groups like big business more than the British public.

Two key reforms are proposed: First Government must introduce a register of all lobbying activity. This would be mandatory, cover all those involved in the influence industry, and be properly managed and enforced by an independent body. Second the introduction of a tougher system to tackle the revolving door between the public and private sector.

F. William Engdahl, 17 December 2008

The Federal Reserve has bluntly refused a request by a major US financial news service to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from US taxpayers and to reveal the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. Their lawyers resorted to the bizarre argument that they did so to protect 'trade secrets.' Is the secret that the US financial system is de facto bankrupt? The latest Fed move is further indication of the degree of panic and lack of clear strategy within the highest ranks of the US financial institutions. Unprecedented Federal Reserve expansion of the Monetary Base in recent weeks sets the stage for a future Weimar-style hyperinflation perhaps before 2010.

On November 7 Bloomberg filed suit under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesting details about the terms of eleven new Federal Reserve lending programs created during the deepening financial crisis.

The Fed responded on December 8 claiming it's allowed to withhold internal memos as well as information about 'trade secrets' and 'commercial information.' The central bank did confirm that a records search found 231 pages of documents pertaining to the requests.

William Dinan, 12 December 2008

A recent series of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) from the Conservatives has shown that a wide variety of government bodies hire public relations firms to lobby their own government.

The Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) is appalled that the Tories are now proposing to ban government agencies from hiring lobbyists. The APPC is urgently seeking a meeting with Nick Hurd after he told The Times that "the hiring of lobbyists by government bodies to grab more government cash is a financial scandal." This follows the circulation of a Conservative Party research document (pdf) showing that state-funded agencies had spent over £9.7 m on at least 71 separate contracts with lobbying firms over a five-year period. Hurd has proposed that, if the Conservative Party is elected, it would emulate the 1989 Byrd Amendment, which banned U.S. government agencies from hiring lobbyists.

David Miller, 5 December 2008 

A special correspondent attended the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Scotland 'PRide' awards in Edinburgh on the 20th of November. They sent Spinwatch this report.  To keep their job our correspondent has to remain anonymous. 

You didn’t have to be drunk to make it through the 25 awards presented at the 2008 CIPR Pride Awards in Scotland, but it would have helped. Thankfully, there were at least ten bottles of wine on every table, and that came after the champagne reception in the Ballroom Foyer of the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Edinburgh. So, most prestigious potential prize winners were well oiled by the time local radio presenter Grant Stott, John Leslie’s brother, took on the formidable task of holding their attention for 4 hours. Between several sshhh's, he managed to slip in a joke when the Prime Minister’s brother took to the stage to present the Public Affairs Award for ‘campaigns designed to inform the public policy agenda or influence the legislative process.’ Irony aside, Stott’s gag which only slightly embarrassed John Brown, the former head of public relations at Glasgow City Council turned independent consultant and treasurer of the CIPR, went something like this: 'We've got something in common. We both know what it's like to have brothers battered in the press.’ There wasn’t that much laughter.

Nicholas Jones, 3 December 2008

Jacqui Smith’s private office at the Home Office was no different to any other in Whitehall. Right across the various government departments, Labour’s political spin doctors have shown scant regard for the confidentiality of ministerial announcements and they have regularly been trailed in advance through leaks to sympathetic journalists.

Andy Rowell, 1 December 2008

As President-elect Barack Obama finalises the top positions in his government, there is growing international concern that his Administration is not looking radical enough. As he confirms Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State today, too many of his appointees are looking like the old Clinton Administration.

But whilst the world’s attention has been focused on the top jobs in his administration, two other contests have recently been finalized that will have a significant bearing on the success of his Presidency. And here at least, there is reason to hope.

In the recent near-blanket coverage of the American Presidential election, it is easy to forget that there have been elections in the House of Representatives and Senate, the two different assemblies that make up Congress. For an Obama Presidency to succeed in pushing through legislation, he will need support from both Houses.

Jonathan Matthews, 29 November 2008

Last year celebrity pig farmer Jimmy Doherty kept 1000 organically reared pigs, while this year apparently he's raised barely 200. But if Jimmy’s farm is on the skids, the same cannot be said of his career as a media celeb.

At the end of last month, a glittering star-studded ceremony in London saw Jimmy crowned “National Farmers' Union (NFU) Farming Champion”, thanks to his recent TV series: Jimmy Doherty’s Farming Heroes. The same series also got cited a couple of weeks later when the star of Jimmy's Farm, picked up an Honorary Doctorate from Anglia Ruskin University.

David Miller, 28 November 2008

Giles Chichester is the Conservative MEP who had to stand down as the leader of the party in the European Parliament over a breach of expenses rules in June 2008. He wrote to Spinwatch objecting to my Guardian article Reining in the influence industry.

His email complaining about the article, and an open letter to Giles Chichester inviting him to sever his ties with the nuclear industry are reproduced below:

*Date: *6 November 2008 15:08:17 GMT
*To: * This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it *Subject: **FAO David Miller*

Your piece entitled “Reining in the influence industry” dated 31st October 2008 makes certain references to me which are out of date or incorrect.

First, and most importantly, I have been unequivocally cleared of the allegations of conflict of interest and misuse of allowances by the Secretary General of the European Parliament.